A peculiar gap exists between the accepted theoretical basis of instruction in singing and the actualmethods of vocal teachers. Judging by the number of scientific treatises on the voice, the academic observerwould be led to believe that a coherent Science of Voice Culture has been evolved. Modern methods ofinstruction in singing are presumed to embody a system of exact and infallible rules for the management ofthe voice. Teachers of singing in all the musical centers of Europe and America claim to follow a definite planin the training of voices, based on established scientific principles. But a practical acquaintance with themodern art of Voice Culture reveals the fact that the laws of toneproduction deduced from the scientificinvestigation of the voice do not furnish a satisfactory basis for a method of training voices.Throughout the entire vocal profession, among singers, teachers, and students alike, there is a generalfeeling of the insufficiency of present knowledge of the voice. The problem of the correct management of thevocal organs has not been finally and definitely solved. Voice Culture has not been reduced to an exactscience. Vocal teachers are not in possession of an infallible method of training voices. Students of singingfind great difficulty in learning how to use their voices. Voice Culture is generally recognized as entitled to aposition among the exact sciences; but something remains to be done before it can assume that position.There must be some definite reason for the failure of theoretical investigation to produce a satisfactoryScience of Voice Culture. This cannot be due to any present lack of understanding of the vocal mechanism onthe part of scientific students of the subject. The anatomy and physiology of the vocal organs have beenexhaustively studied by a vast number of highly trained experts. So far as the muscular operations oftoneproduction are concerned, and the laws of acoustics bearing on the vocal action, no new discovery canwell be expected. But in this very fact, the exhaustive attention paid to the mechanical operations of the voice,is seen the incompleteness of Vocal Science. Attention has been turned exclusively to the mechanical featuresof toneproduction, and in consequence many important facts bearing on the voice have been overlooked.In spite of the general acceptance of the doctrines of Vocal Science, toneproduction has not really beenstudied from the purely scientific standpoint. The use of the word science presupposes the carefulobservation and study of all facts and phenomena bearing in any way on the subject investigated. Viewed inthis light, the scientific study of the voice is at once seen to be incomplete. True, the use of the voice is amuscular operation, and a knowledge of the muscular structure of the vocal organs is necessary to anunderstanding of the voice. But this knowledge alone is not sufficient. Like every other voluntary muscularoperation, toneproduction is subject to the psychological laws of control and guidance. Psychology istherefore of equal importance with anatomy and acoustics as an element of Vocal Science.There is also another line along which all previous investigation of the voice is singularly incomplete. Animmense fund of information about the vocal action is obtained by attentive listening to voices, and in noother way. Yet this important element in Vocal Science is almost completely neglected.In order to arrive at an assured basis for the art of Voice Culture, it is necessary in the first place to applythe strictest rules of scientific investigation to the study of the voice. A definite plan must be adopted, toinclude every available source information. First, the insight into the operations of the voice, obtained bylistening to voices, must be reviewed and analyzed. Second, the sciences of anatomy, mechanics, acoustics,and psychology must each contribute its share to the general fund of information. Third, from all the facts thusbrought together the general laws of vocal control and management must be deduced.Before undertaking this exhaustive analysis of the vocal action it is advisable to review in detail everymethod of instruction in singing now in vogue. This may seem a very difficult task. To the casual observerconditions in the vocal world appear truly chaotic. Almost every prominent teacher believes himself topossess a method peculiarly his own; it would not be easy to find two masters who agree on every point,practical as well as theoretical. But this confusion of methods is only on the surface.